Agroterrorism may be a bigger threat than anthrax - Nation - Brief Article

National Catholic Reporter, Nov 9, 2001 by Gill Donovan

The deliberate sabotage of a food supply could be carried out on the nation's farms or in its agricultural research facilities, say a government official and an agriculture expert.

Floyd Horn, a top administrator at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, calls such terrorism "quite plausible" because agents for such attacks are readily available and the economic effects would be significant.

Peter Chalk, an expert on international terrorism at the Rand Corp. in Washington, said chemical or biological attacks against food crops or livestock would be "substantially easier and less risky to carry out" than attacks on people.

In an interview with The Leaven, the Kansas City, Kan., archdiocesan newspaper, Chalk gave several reasons: Existing germ agents that are lethal or contagious to animals number at least 22, many more than could harm humans; overuse of antibiotics and steroids has lowered the natural tolerance of animals to disease and bred drug-resistant strains of germs; attacks against livestock or crops are harder to detect because they can imitate natural occurrences; and agroterrorism is not as risky for the perpetrators as attacks like those of Sept. 11. Diseases such as hog cholera and others are fatal to animals but can't be spread to humans.

Dan Nagengast, executive director of the Kansas Rural Center at Whiting, also is urging officials to look at long-term solutions such as changing current farming practices and marketing strategies. The center's mission is to promote family farms, sustainable agriculture and rural social justice.

Nagengast called for a return to more natural farming practices, smaller concentrations of livestock, less reliance on single varieties of seeds, less reliance on heavy dosages of antibiotics and the development of markets for products closer to home.

Briefs, gathered from news services, correspondents and staff, are compiled and edited by Gill Donovan.